This invention relates generally to card games, and more particularly to card games with dice.
Conventional games are played by two types of game players, namely card players and dice players. Typically, skilled card players enjoy cards playing because they possess superior ability to memorize, or "count cards." Since the number of cards in a deck of playing cards is fixed, a card player who can memorize cards removed from the original deck will have the advantage of predicting the next upcoming cards from the remaining card deck by the process of elimination of counting cards.
On the other hand skilled dice players generally masters the calculation of probability. Since each roll of dice is completely separate from a previous or subsequent roll, the probability of each roll is exactly the same (i.e. one in six for a single dice, or one in thirty-six for a pair of dice). One cannot predict the probability of the rolls by eliminating previous rolls because each roll is independent of one another.
Conventional games do not have the special features offered by the combination of card and dice games. Therefore, it is desirable to have a dice game where skilled cards players with superior memory can combine the skill of card playing and counting with the skill of calculating probability of a dice game.
Furthermore, there is a need of a combination card and dice apparatus that may substitute the use of a pair of dice in most conventional games requiring the use of dice to determine probability. During travels on cars and trains, the vibration within the moving compartment frequently makes it difficult to play a game that requires a stable flat surface to throw a pair of dice. Especially in such environment, the throwing of dice is undesirable because dice easily bounces off the surface due to the movement and vibration. Therefore it is highly desirable to substitute dice throwing with cards drawing so that vibrations within such compartment will not affect the probability determination of the game. In addition, the use of cards will eliminate the percussive sound generated by the rolling of the dice on the surface. To some players, the repetitive percussive sound from the repeating roll of the dice is annoying and undesirable. Therefore, the use of cards will be preferable.
Additionally, card players may also elect to not recycle drawn cards back into the card deck, thereby allowing players with superior memory to eliminate those previously drawn cards in their probability calculation. This will provide additional challenge and excitement to allow a player to better predict the subsequent cards being drawn from the remaining card deck.
The general idea of a combination card and dice game is not novel. For e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,012 by Makovic et al. discloses a card game showing two dices that represent the numerical total of the two dice on each card. This game consists of sixty cards (six of each numerical total) and has no correlation with the probability of the occurrence of the roll of the dice. For example, the numerical total of six contains three combinations, namely, five and one, four and two, and three and three. All three combinations are put onto the same card. This game also requires the use of a pair of real dice, which is cumbersome and lack a major feature of the present invention of substituting the pair of dice completely. In addition, this game does not have the card containing the most common numerical combination of a pair of dice, namely, seven. Therefore the '012 patent does not satisfy the earlier identified needs.
Thus, there is a need for a game combining the skills of calculating the probability of a pair of dice roll and the memorization skills of counting cards to better predict the subsequent cards being drawn. In addition, it will also be highly desirable to have a combination card and dice game that substitute the use of a pair of dice because dice frequently bounce off the play surface during the roll, and eliminate the repetitive percussive noise from a dice roll.